


The Lyre of Apollo

by Kindnessgreen



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, I haven't even decided if these fools even get together at the end, To An Extent, and I mean SLOWBURN, did I mention slowburn?, if this kicks off, prepare for neglecting parental figures(no kidding), slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25097974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kindnessgreen/pseuds/Kindnessgreen
Summary: Percy Jackson wasn’t the only one out on a quest in the Lightning Thief. A demigod’s work is never finished.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Killer Quest

The sun was shining brightly and the strawberry fields were blooming on a fine June day. Everyone was in high spirits in camp half-blood. Well, almost everyone.  
Emily Leguizamo was sitting on the porch of the Hermes cabin, doing everything in her power to try and get a cool breeze. She focused all of her energy into getting herself a breeze, thinking to herself, 'oh come on! Just a single breeze would do?' At that moment, a chilling breeze enveloped her, and she sighed in content. But that peace was soon shattered by an enthusiastic voice seeming to yell in her face “hi Emily!”  
Emily shrieked, and her she’ll of cold air dissipated from around her. She looked towards the beaming face in front of her and sighed, “God damn it, I nearly had some control over it”.  
The sunny face of Amber Stevens faltered, and answered, “aw, better luck next time I suppose. Anyway, you’re gonna be late for lunch, c’mon!”  
Emily looked towards the clock on the wall inside; it’s 11:45. Emily winced, and got up with Amber to run over to the dining pavilion. The moment they got over, they realized the place was packed and all the good places were taken. The two split up and Emily sat herself over at the Hermes table.  
She spared a glance over at the empty Poseidon table, reminiscing over the kid who was sitting there yesterday.  
His name was Percy Jackson, right? Something like that at least. He was in the Hermes cabin for a bit until he was claimed in the middle of Capture the Flag. It didn’t really matter, she never really got to talk to the kid before he was sent off on a quest. Chances were she wasn’t going to see him again, so why bother spending time thinking about him? When she broke out of her train of thought, she looked up to see Amber, sitting right next to her.  
Emily looked around and then back at her. Amber hadn’t been claimed, but that didn’t stop her from always sitting everywhere but the Hermes table. Emily asked, “what’re you doing here? Don’t you have other friends you can sit with?” Amber grinned cheekily and replied, “well, you’re always sitting alone so...”  
“I just like my space, that’s all!” “Yeah, well I can’t have you just sitting here brooding, can I?”  
Emily was taken aback and tried to retort “what? No- I wasn’t!- I wasn’t brooding and you know it!”  
Amber giggled and questioned, “then what exactly were you doing, hm?”  
Emily went quiet and looked away, trying to come up with a good response. “So maybe I was brooding, so what? I wasn’t bothering anyone, was I?”  
Amber put a band over her heart and said in fake pity, “you’re worrying me, your Capture the Flag enemy!”  
Emily let out a laugh, but quickly stifled it. It was too late though, as Amber exclaimed, “AHA! So you can laugh! Who would’ve known!”  
Emily looked away in an attempt to stifle her giggles, but looking over the pavilion she saw a Dionysus kid, Damon Kaibigan he said his name was? He looked panicked, and ran over to Emily and blurted “do you know where Chiron is?”  
She was startled for a moment, but thought it over and responded, “I think he might be over at the Big House”.  
She got up from the table and ran over to the Big House with Amber and Damon.  
As they ran, Emily looked around the fields at the many fights breaking out all around them. As tensions were rising in the heavens, everyone knew that the fight was going to make its way down to camp one way or another. Emily could only hope that whatever Percy was doing was gonna work.  
The three reached the Big House and Emily knocked on the door. No answer. She knocked again, still nothing. Damon questioned, “maybe he’s not here?”, but before they could walk away Amber opened the wooden door and walked inside.  
Damon and Emily glanced at each other and walked inside as the weather vane spun like a tornado. Damon began calling for Chiron but they were unable to find him. Amber then told them, “I’ll head upstairs; Damon, look around this floor; Emily, look in the basement”.  
They nodded and headed to their respective floors. Emily ran down the stairs and was stopped for a moment in awe at the stockpiled ambrosia and strawberry preserves, covering the walls from top to bottom.  
Once she got over the shock of it all she looked around the basement. The only thing she found however was Mr. D snoring in a lawn chair in the corner, a small pile of Coca Cola cans next to him. Disappointing, to say the least.  
Emily quietly walked back up the stairs slowly, now acutely aware of every cream of the old wooden steps. Once she got back up she looked over to see Damon speaking rapid fire to the centaur Chiron, who simply nodded every once in a while. Emily interrupted and asked Damon “what’s all of this about anyway?”  
Damon looked to be on the verge of tears as he answered, “the cloven council is gone! They’re gone and I don’t know what we do when this kind of shit happens!”  
Chiron held up a hand and responded “alright; first of all, language. Second of all, I think that we should have a meeting before we jump to any decisio-“.  
He looked towards the stairs leading up to the attic. There was green smoke billowing from the crack beneath in the door. “Who’s up there?” Chiron asked.  
Damon and Emily went silent, merely staring at the doorway. When the smoke dissipated, the door opened slowly and Amber came down the stairs with a look of dread on her face. Chiron asked her in a concerned tone, “what did the Oracle say?”  
“Ride to the south with the child of North,  
and face the curse of gold’s terrible worth,  
make peace with your heritage by high light,  
and rid the glades of a terrible blight”  
Chiron nodded and spoke, “well, two prophecies in one summer? That’ll have to be a first.”  
He nodded to himself and said to Amber, “well then, I guess you’ll need some time to pack your things for your quest. I’ll leave you to it.”  
Emily watched Amber walk out of the big house in shock, and followed her quietly all the way to the Hermes cabin. Amber shambled onto the porch and sat on the swinging bench. She seemed to be deep in thought and didn’t notice when Emily sat down next to her.  
The two sat in silence for a moment before Emily asked “so who do you plan on bringing on the quest with you?”  
Amber chuckled and answered, “well, that much is pretty obvious. I only know one ‘child of North’. Unless you know another kid of Boreas, of course?”  
Emily snickered and said “well you’ve got that right. So on the topic of the prophecy, where do you think we’re going?”  
Amber immediately answered “well, Florida of course! Heading south and ridding the glades of a blight? Like, the Everglades! Ooh, you think we’ll get to go to Disney World? I’ve always wanted to go!”  
Emily chuckled and finished “well, my guess is that high light means summer solstice so we should definitely get to packing”.  
Amber slapped her forehead and muttered “shit! That’s what it meant! We’ll only have eight days to get to Florida!”  
Emily responded “well then, we better pack and get well rested because the next eight eight days are gonna be packed”.  
Amber nodded and the two got themselves packed for the journey. Emily packed a drawstring bag with some ambrosia, a water bottle, some granola bars, a wallet with mortal cash, a smaller bag with drachmas, a sleeping bag, and a spare change of clothes. She also pulled out her hair pin from under her bunk bed and put it on her dresser so she wouldn’t forget it tomorrow.  
Who knew what was gonna happen tomorrow, but she knew whatever would happen, Amber could lead them in the right direction.


	2. Amber Fights the Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amber is freaking out over what the quest holds in store for her. But it can't get too crazy, can it?

Amber was freaking out. She had no idea what was going to go down come tomorrow, and she was gonna have to actually lead a quest? She dreamt of this day for a long time, but now that it was here she was nervous as Hades. She began thinking to herself ‘what would Gram Gram do?’ Or maybe that wasn’t the best thing to do, since she had heard that she was harassing a police station last time she’d check. On the other hand, the police were never good. Either way, she shouldn’t really keep focusing on the past. If she did, she might let something slip and everyone would know where she was from. As Amber slipped deeper into sleep, she fondly remembered her childhood before any of this… 

“Amber, put aside your homework! There’s company over!” Amber looked up from her homework and ran down the stairs to see her grandma standing by the door. Ruby Stevens, or Gram Gram as she was liked to be called, was silver haired, with a lime green jumper and matching skirt, with a pair of glasses framing a pair of eyes that seemed to stare into your very soul. However, today she seemed to have a much more chipper tone to her, and asked Amber “you know how your birthday is coming up, and you’ve always wanted to travel for it?”  
Amber nodded vigorously and Gram Gram went on, “well, for your twelfth birthday, we’re going to the place you’ve wanted to go for years! We’re going to Los Angeles for the weekend!”  
Amber smiled so wide she could feel her cheeks straining. “Los Angeles! I can’t believe we’re actually going”, Amber paused before asking “what’s the catch? You hate the place, what are you getting out of this?”  
Gram Gram chuckled and answered “true, I despise that city of filth, but don’t worry about it! No catch this time! It’s your birthday!”  
Amber looked at Gram Gram with suspicion before breaking into a fit of laughs. “Well, you better get to packing and agitate the gravel if we’re going to catch the plane”.   
Amber headed up the stairs and pulled out a suitcase and got to packing it quickly. She couldn’t wait to head to Los Angeles! Who knew what would be waiting for her there? Maybe she’d even make some friends…

Her alarm clock rang and woke her up nice and early, and she reached over to turn it off. Soon enough she returned to her senses and looked around the Hermes cabin. She saw that no one had really noticed in their sleep. One kid rolled over and groaned a bit before heading back to sleep. ‘No time for thinking about the past. I’m in the now, and that’s what matters’ Amber thought.   
She changed out of her nightclothes into her camp half-blood T-shirt and some jeans, along with her white sneakers. She sniffed in the smell of fresh linen and immediately calmed. She walked silently over to Emily’s bunk and shook her awake.   
Emily stirred awake and looked at Amber. She nodded and quickly changed out of her clothes into her camp half-blood shirt. The two put on their backpacks and headed out of the cabin without anyone noticing. Well, it seemed like no one noticed until they got out to the porch. Amber caught sight of Luke Castellan sitting in a rocking chair, looking back at them as they left the cabin. The two looked at each other for a moment of tense silence, until Luke smiled and mimicked his lips being sealed. Amber smiled and they continued across the camp ground.  
The two walked down to the driveway leading out into the world, where some of the harpies were waiting by a white van with a giant strawberry over a ribbon reading “Delphi Strawberry Service”. The harpy smiled a creepy grin at Emily and chirped “Emily is lucky she’s so good to Aello! Otherwise we would have simply eaten you last night!”   
Emily grimaced and responded “yeah yeah, I know. You eat late kids, bla bla bla- can we get this over with already? The deal only stands if I’m alive, got it?”   
Aello took a hungry glance at Amber and asked “how about that one? Can Aello have just a nibble of her fingers?”  
The color flushed out of Amber’s face, but Emily held up a hand and answered “this quest is for her. We need her there in one piece, alright?”   
Aello looked down dismally and finished “Aello understands”.  
Amber looked at Emily and asked “what did you do last night?”  
Emily shrugged and answered “struck a deal with ‘em, that’s all”  
Amber looked at her with her mouth agape, but she knew they didn’t have time for the details. They hopped into the back of the van, squeezed in with several boxes full of strawberries. The van got moving, and they rode on in awkward silence. Amber looked through the front window as the pine trees of Long Island melted away into the brick buildings of the city. Soon enough they got themselves to the bus terminal at the airport. Amber and Emily hopped out of the van and headed over to the terminal’s ticket center. She asked the ticket seller, a sticklike woman with pale skin “excuse me, but are there any buses from New York to Florida heading out in two days or less?”   
The ticket seller scanned her clipboard briefly. “I’m sorry honey, but there doesn’t seem to be any buses to Florida any time soon”.   
Emily tugged on Amber’s sleeve and pointed towards someone in the crowd. Several monsters, disguised as security officers were eyeing them and coming a little too close for comfort. They looked over to the Delphi Strawberry Service van driving out into the streets. Amber then looked back at the ticket seller, who now shone a toothy grin with a few too many pearly whites. She continued “but there are some trips that you two lost kids could be taken to somewhere nice and secure. If you would just follow me-”  
“I’m sorry ma’am, but these kiddos are with me!” Amber looked back to see a suntanned hand holding onto her shoulder and a blonde flutter bum in aviators and a pilot uniform complete with a bright yellow ascot, flashing a dazzling smile at the monster.   
The ticket seller scowled as the man steered the two of them away from the monsters. Well, that was one problem solved. But who was this guy? And what did he plan on doing with them? Out of the frying pan and into the fire; that’s how the saying went, right? Well, she was in the middle of a real-life example of it. When they were well into the airport, Amber realized they had bypassed security. She spun around and asked the beautiful man “who are you?”   
He laughed and replied “well, I’m a lot of things! Bringer of the sun, poetry extraordinaire, beat archer in the world, Apollo- but today, I’ll be your flight counselor to Florida!”  
Emily’s mouth fell open. “You’re a god? And one of the Olymians no less?”  
Apollo beamed and joked “well well well, I see my reputation precedes me!”  
“And you’re gonna help get us to Florida for free?” Amber asked excitedly.   
Apollo answered “that’s right kid! We're headed to Florida!”  
Emily held up a hand before Amber could say another word, and questioned “wait. Gods don’t go throwing around favors for nothing, let alone Olympians. So what’re you getting out of this?”  
Apollo grimaced. “Perhaps when we get to the chariot I’ll answer some questions”  
The three of them walked over to one of the plane terminals and down into where they’d usually get into a plane, only to reveal a golden plane, engraved with designs similar to the sun.  
Amber began beaming as they walked out onto the plane. The inside looked like what she had seen in countless movies with private jets, and was ecstatic at this point. Apollo looked back at the two of them as they took their seats and asked “all buckled in?”  
The two nodded and Apollo began to pull the plane out of the airport, and in no time at all they were up in the sky. Soon Apollo’s voice came over the loudspeaker: “now you see, the reason I’m helping you kids is because there’s something in need of protection down in Florida, and guess who’s going to Florida! You kids! So, I need the two of you to do what you need to do down there, and then make sure that my Lyre stays safe when the Summer Solstice comes around! Now, you’re probably asking yourself ‘gee, now why would the great and awesome Apollo need the help of someone like us?’ and I’m glad you asked! You want to prove yourselves to the gods, right? Well, the summer solstice is the one day of the year that the entrance to the cave containing my Lyre is open. So, let that day pass without problem and you will be deemed worthy by the gods! Besides, a great god like me is always busy doing more important things! Like driving the sun! Or blessing the next big thing! Or coming up with new limericks! Do you want to hear one I’ve been working on? There once was a dude from Kentucky…”   
Amber listened and paid close attention to the god. He seemed to be quite a talker, though his limericks could use some work. As she looked closer at the god, she noticed that he was sweating a bit. ‘Simply because we’re riding the sun, that’s all’.  
But as she thought to herself, she noticed that the plane was nice and air conditioned. Amber thought for a moment and walked up into the cockpit, as she asked “so… would you possibly know who my godly parent is? Considering you’re an Olympian and all…”  
More sweat began to pour down Apollo’s face as he responded “I think you should take your seat Amber”  
Amber looked at him quizzically and walked back to Emily. “Do most gods get nervous around half-bloods?”  
Emily looked at Apollo suspiciously, and turned to Amber. “No, gods aren’t scared of us. The only cases where they would be nervous with us would be if they were hiding something like- holy shit do you think-”  
“I don’t know, but I’m gonna try something.”  
Amber didn’t know what exactly she was doing as she walked into the cockpit of the sun, and asked Apollo “so, since it’s the sun and all, and you’re driving it, can you do anything cool?”  
Apollo beamed wider and answered “anything for you kiddo! So what do you want to see?”  
“Razz my berries!” Amber suggested. Apollo and Emily looked at her with varied expressions. On Emily, there was a look of pure horror, and with Apollo, a challenge he gladly accepted. The plane took a nosedive down into the mountains below and then up into the stars at such a speed Amber couldn’t comprehend it for a moment. Once they were steady again, Amber asked suspiciously “so, just a question, how many other people would you do that for?”  
“Oh, just my wife, friends or ki-”, Apollo seemed to have realized his big mistake, but a little too late as he looked up into Amber’s enraged face. “You.”  
Apollo started laughing nervously as Amber began yelling “You bastard! You left my mom to die and didn’t have the balls to come to her own funeral! You’re neglectful my entire life and now you decide to show up to be a part of my life temporarily because one of your toys is at risk of being taken? You’re DESPICABLE!”  
Apollo looked away and started “listen, Amber I” but was cut off abruptly by the sounds of his gags as Amber began choking him out with his own ascot.   
“This is for my mom!” Amber yelled as she tightened the ascot around his neck, now bulging with veins.  
Emily ran over to Amber and tried to take control of the plane. That’s when Amber realized there was no one experienced driving the sun. The plane took a nosedive towards the mountains yet again and as Emily pulled the plane up, it steadied itself. Apollo wasn’t doing as well, as Amber was getting tighter and tighter every second. She yelled “Emily, open the hatch! We’re ditching this joint!”  
Emily, caught up in the adrenaline and fervor of the moment, ran to the hatch and pried it open. The pressure dropped and it opened like a vacuum, sucking everything out with it. Emily managed to grab one of the chairs before she went flying out into the open sky. Amber looked around and saw several parachutes by the hatch. If she timed her jump just right…  
Amber took one last look at Apollo, who was turning blue in the face and burning up, and yelled “your limericks suck! Try haikus instead!” and let go.  
She grabbed onto Emily and the parachutes and all of them went flying out into the vast sky.


	3. Therapy over Granola Bars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls plummet to their doom! Or do they?

Emily was going to die.  
She and Amber were falling out in open air hundreds of miles above the Earth, and she couldn’t remember how exactly she ended up there. Wait, there was a plane, and… Apollo? That’s right, Apollo was there, and Amber was his daughter, and she got really angry and- OH SHIT! She tried to kill Apollo and she opened the hatch and now they’re gonna die!  
She looked around frantically for anything that could help her, but only saw junk falling through the air that couldn’t help her. However, she could hear Amber yelling about something… a parachute? She looked around and saw several bags near her. Emily’s head put two and two together and began swimming through the air to try and reach the parachute. As soon as she grabbed it she scrambled to put it on and pull the cord. Being taken out of the freefall felt like whiplash, and she was able to get a good look around where they were. She could see mountains covered in trees as far as the eye could see. And then she blacked out.

She was cold, the freezer had one window and was blanketed in ice. She sat in the corner and waited for the heat to kill her. However, it never got to the point where she started becoming numb. Emily simply sat in fear of when she began to lose her senses and the cold took over. Every second of the night ticked away at the pace of melting ice, and only kept company by the countless boxes of school food around her. As the hours soon revealed the sun, and she finally felt warmth again, she heard the fridge door slide open. “So you thought long and hard about your decision yet?”  
Emily spat in the voice’s direction and retorted “I’m not gonna freaking date you Jake. And this sure as heck isn’t going to change my mind”  
Jake scowled from the door and walked off, letting her leave, until… 

Emily’s eyes flew open, and looked around frantically. Her parachute had her stuck up in a tree, and looked around to see her backpack stuck in some of the higher branches. As she scanned the woods they were in, she saw Amber out cold, tangled up in her parachute and the branches. Emily began to squirm and squeeze out of her parachute, and finally looked down. She got sick just from looking at it, she was so high up she felt dizzy. However, she steeled herself and reached for the closest branch to grab onto. There was one right next to her that was sturdy enough to hold her, but she was going to have to jump to reach it. Emily gulped, and slowly swung her way over to the branch. She let go of her parachute and went flying towards the branch. She felt a moment of adrenaline and terror as she flew through the air for half a second. The terror took over though when she realized she wasn’t going to make it to the branch. Emily pushed for a gust of wind in her mind for a moment and felt a soft push give her just enough boost to make it to the tree. She grabbed onto the branch and clung to it for what felt like an eternity. Once she got her nerves back, she began to slowly climb towards her backpack and pushed it off of the branch. She watched it as it fell all of the way down to the forest floor, and stayed put until she began to see Amber stir from her tree. Emily called “hey, Amber! Over here!”  
Amber’s head snapped up toward Emily, and without looking down tentatively asked “... how far down?”  
Emily looked down again from the staggeringly high and a number popped into her head: “Thirty-seven meters down”.  
Amber looked at Emily and asked “how’d you know that?”  
Emily shrugged, “I don’t know, guess it’s just part of the Boreas package”  
“So how are we getting down from up here?”  
That’s a good question, to be honest… I think we may just need to climb down”  
“Wait, what?”  
Emily looked over at Amber, and saw the color drain out of her face as she looked down at the forest floor below. Well, she got them in this mess, now they were gonna have to get out of it together. Emily began her steady descent down the tree, and looked over to Amber to signal her to do the same. In almost no time, Emily reached the bottom branches and jumped down from the tree.  
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?”, she muttered to herself, brushing pine needles off of her shoulders and looking back up at Amber.  
She wasn’t doing so well, considering she was stuck in the middle of the tree refusing to move.  
Emily sighed and shouted, “Amber! You can’t stay up there forever!”  
“I can try!”  
Emily sighed and shook her head, how exactly did she have the fortune of ending up on this quest with her? Her first quest no less! One of them was probably gonna die by the end of this, and Emily was gonna make sure it wasn’t her. Nevertheless, she couldn’t just leave Amber up there. Or could she? Nah, she was the one chosen for the quest, after all. She called up to Amber, “Wait a sec, I’ll talk you through!”  
Emily shouted directions at Amber, getting her to clamber down the tree at such a slow speed she considered leaving her up there three or four more times. But by the time the sun set, Amber had gotten to the forest floor. The moment her feet touched the ground, Amber sighed contentedly and remarked, “Well that wasn’t so bad, was it?”  
Emily didn’t answer. Instead, she looked around the area for anything else that might have fallen from the plane with them. To her surprise, Emily managed to find quite a bit of equipment, albeit most of it not the stuff they started with. Several embroidered hand towels, a couple bottles of hand sanitizer, several glow sticks and- was that protection? What was Apollo doing in that chariot? Maybe I don’t want to think about that, Emily thought to herself. Out of the food she could salvage, there was less variety. There were some bags of microwavable popcorn and granola bars; past that, all the food was thrown to the dirt and outside of bags. She made her way over to Amber, who was still visibly shaken from the ordeal, and asked, “you got any allergies?”  
“Only to gold.”  
“Weird, but works for me.”  
Emily opened one of the granola bars and handed another one to Amber. She took it slowly and began to eat. The two sat in silence eating granola bars for about five minutes, the tension between the two growing with each second. A thousand questions rushed through Emily’s head at once, and when the silence became too much for her, she looked up at Amber and asked, “Why did you do that?”  
Amber looked up at her for a moment and answered, “I… don’t really know. He was right there, and when the realization hit me… I couldn’t take it. I had to do something. Throttling him felt good but probably wasn’t productive.”  
“Damn right, it wasn’t productive.”  
“Look, I know you’re angry-”  
“Angry? Angry doesn’t even begin to explain how I’m feeling! You just threw out our easy way to Florida!  
“Well, I’m sorry, but he was never there for me! I’ve never seen him in my life, and the one time I do, he needs something from me!”  
“Yes! That’s how almost all half bloods feel! But you don’t see them running around trying to kill their parents!”  
“But you really don’t understand! He was never there for me! Never, ever! Most kids get at least a dream, a sign, hell, even a gift sometimes! But me? It was nothing. For foutu years, he never gave any sign he cared or was even there!”  
“Well, whoop-de-doo! You’ve just described a quarter of the half blood population! Again! You’re not special, your dad doesn’t neglect you personally! They’re all assholes! You gotta be smart about how you act with them!”  
“Well, you’re certainly one to talk. You’ve always had your godly parent there by your side! You have no idea what it feels like to be ostracized by family!”  
“No idea? You really don’t get it, do you?”  
“What am I not getting here?!”  
“The fact that I’m a latina demigod, in a world where the gods clearly have a preference towards white people! Do you know how painful that is? Having to juggle both cultures while making myself fit in in both? No one at camp understands my human heritage, while I need to constantly hide my godly side at home! That's a pain!”  
Emily went silent after this. Amber sat open-mouthed in front of her, completely silenced by what she had said. She was clearly in some kind of shock, and probably hadn’t thought of it like that before. Typical. Amber stood up and walked away, probably for some time to herself. Emily could use the alone time too. She hadn’t realized it at first, but she soon realized that she had tears on her cheeks. She wiped them from her eyes. When was the last time she had a good cry? It had been a while, to say the least. She closed her eyes, and felt herself begin to drift off to sleep…  
When Emily woke up again, she smelled smoke. She began coughing violently, and opened her eyes to see a small campfire set up, with what looked to be a bag of popcorn held by a spit over it. She looked over at Amber, and she seemed to be snacking on another bag of popcorn.  
“How long was I out?”  
“Eh, a couple hours, at least. Long enough for us to get our stuff, though.”  
Emily nodded and pointed to the bag over the fire, asking, “Is that bag for me?”  
Amber nodded, and she handed the bag over to Emily.  
She took it and ripped it open. The popcorn was partly burnt, but was also well-popped. She began to eat again. The two spent another moment of silence simply eating, with a new awkward tension between the two. Amber was the one to break the silence this time; “Listen, I’m sorry about exploding at you. You’re right, I was overreacting a bit.”  
Emily snickered, “A bit?”  
“Hey, I’m trying to apologize here. What I’m trying to say is, I’m sorry that I was acting pretentious. I was angry, and on the high of just attempting to murder god. I’ll definitely try to do better next time.”  
“Honestly looking back on that, you trying to kill Apollo was kind of funny.”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah, I can hear him lamenting somewhere in Olympus; oh woe is me! My own daughter tried to kill me because of my own negligence!”  
“Oh my god, yeah! He’s probably gonna have nightmares about today and everything!”  
“Zeus is probably gonna be something like ‘what are the night terrors about this time?’ and he answers ‘MY DAUGHTER!!!’”  
Both of them began cackling so hard they could barely breathe. Emily looked at Amber mid laugh and just knew that she would be the one to fix this. She got through her hiccuping and finished, “If Apollo lets us live through the night for mocking him, we’re totally telling the other campers when we get back.”  
“Damn right, we are!”  
They burst into another fit of laughter, and when they calmed down Amber said, “Well, I think it’s past time for both of us to get to sleep. How about you?”  
“Yeah, I could use some sleep too.”  
Emily stood up and wiped any popcorn kernels she had on her clothes before she laid down, using her bag as a pillow. She closed her eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo I've been stress writing and figured I should come back to this so yeah! Back to this! More to come soon(ish)!!!


	4. Hypnosis in the Hotel Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amber and Emily reach a lodge where they can rest for a moment, but things quickly go south when Amber finds a bin of gold statues.

“Wow, look at the size of this place!” Amber exclaimed.

She had never seen a city as big as Los Angeles, for as long as she had been alive. The sounds, the sights, the colors, everything was just so amazing! She looked at her grandma with stars in her eyes and asked, “Can we see the Hollywood sign? I wanna see the Hollywood sign!”

Her grandma chucked, and answered, “Maybe later, but right now we need to get checked into our hotel. After that, if you’re good I’ll see if we can go see it. Alright?”

Amber nodded excitedly and asked, “So where’s our hotel?”

Her grandma checked her notebook and answered, “It’s a very nice hotel from the looks of the brochure, and it’s cheap on top of it! Let’s go then, shall we?”

Amber grabbed onto her grandma’s hand and followed her through the brightly lit streets, down to a giant hotel that looked like paradise through the giant windows. The two walked into the building and a bellhop walked over to them. He smiled and asked them, “Would you like me to take your luggage up to your suite?”

Amber looked at her grandma, somehow full of even more energy than before, and asked, “We got a suite?”

Amber saw the slightest twitch of confusion on her grandma’s face, but it disappeared quickly as she nodded with a smile. The bellhop took their luggage and walked away, and Amber and her grandma walked over to the front desk to get themselves checked in. boring stuff, really. Amber began looking around the hotel lobby and her eyes fell on a black-haired boy about her age in a bomber jacket, holding a deck of cards in his hands. She walked over to him and sat on the couch next to him. He looked over at her and smiled, handing her half of the deck. “Hey there, the name’s Nico. Nico Di Angelo. You know how to play Mythomagic?”

Amber laughed and said, “No, haven’t heard of it actually! Could you teach me?”

Amber shivered as she felt a cold breeze run down her back, and opened her eyes. Oh yeah, she wasn’t there anymore. Amber looked over at Emily, who was packing up her own things and looking up at the sky. “We should get going”, she said, “It’s gonna start raining soon, from the looks of it”.

Amber looked up at the sky as well. It was blanketed with grey clouds, and she could smell the petrichor in the air. She stood and picked up her own backpack, and asked Emily, “So can your built-in GPS possibly direct us towards the closest sign of civilization? I’d like to not get wet if it’s possible.”

Emily thought for a moment and answered, “I guess it doesn’t really work like that…? I can only really sense our location. I can’t just pull a nearby location out of my ass like that. I think it’s more of a telepathic kind of thing, when I think about it”.

Amber didn’t inquire any further, and asked, “So I guess we should just pick a direction and move?”

“I guess. How about… east?”

“East? Why east?”

“I don’t know, I just kind of have a good feeling about it.”

Amber shrugged and said, “Well, maybe your dad’s just trying to help a bit. Give us a clue, y’know”.

Emily looked eastward, and said, “I hope so, I really do.”

The two girls began walking through the forest, the silence between them filled in by the sounds of the forest all around them. Amber was looking intently for any sign of civilization. A road, a house, a town, anything would do. Her train of thought was then interrupted when she felt her shoes catch on a tree root and fall to the ground. Emily turned to her and helped her up, asking, “Hey, uh, why are you wearing saddle shoes? Of all things, sneakers would be more useful in a magic quest.”

Amber smirked and answered, “These aren’t just any saddle shoes, these are magic saddle shoes! I picked them out myself for a weapon!”

Emily’s expression turned grave in a split second. “You didn’t bring a weapon. On a life threatening quest. Instead you brought shoes.”

“Magic shoes!”

“... We’re gonna die.”

Amber looked at her and put a hand to her chest in mock shock, “I’m hurt, Emily! You’d underestimate the power of good shoes, but you’ll see. These could make or break the outcome of this quest!”

“Hey look, a path”

“Emily, if you’re just trying to end this discussion-”

“No, for real, look!”

The girls ran out into a wide overgrown path that ran from the top of the mountain to another further down. Amber thought it looked familiar for some reason. Oh! “This looks like some kind of ski road thingy!”

“Ski road thingy?”

“Well, do you know the word for it?”

“... Yeah, no.”

“Well, where there’s a ski road there’s a ski lodge!”

“No wonder dad was trying to send us here.”

“Yeah, you think this is a place of power for him or something?”

“I’m not sure, but if it’s a good place, then it’s something.”

The girls broke into a sprint down the mountainside, and didn’t stop until they could see a lodge all the way at the base of the mountain. At the sight of it, Amber began to run faster and faster, until she was nothing but a blur to any passerby. She kept running until she came to the ski resort, well, tried to stop running. Oh Hades, she couldn’t stop. She was gonna cra-

BANG! Amber crashed into one of the pillars of the lodge’s balcony. She fell to the ground in front of the pillar, and fell unconscious.

She was in a dark cave, not one that she knew from memory. There was a light up ahead, and she could hear voices. As she tentatively approached them, she saw the outline of some kind of man in a hawaiian shirt, holding some kind of map in his hands. She tried to get closer, but suddenly felt a jerking sensation in her body-

Amber’s eyes flew open. She was on a cold table, with Emily and another woman standing over her. She looked around, and saw that she was in some kind of hotel lobby. Low ceilinged, with a rustic feel to it. The woman sighed in relief and said, “Good, she’s conscious. How many fingers am I holding up?”

“... Four.”

“Good. who is this girl with you?”

“Emily Fuentes”.

“Good, good. President of the United States?”

“Barack Obama.”

“Alright then”, the woman shined a flashlight in her eyes and looked to Emily, reassuring, “your friend here’s gonna be okay. No noticeable signs of a concussion. And kid, don’t make it a habit of running face first into wooden poles. You might not be so lucky next time, okay?”

Amber nodded and the woman walked away. She looked over at Emily and asked, “So… where are we?”

Emily looked around and answered, “We’re at some place called the Mountain Inn. I’ve got us tickets to the nearest town leaving at the end of the day. We should be okay”.

Amber sighed and smiled to herself, but it quickly ended when she felt a swift punch to her chest. She looked at Emily and cried, “I nearly got a concussion, you wanna break my ribs along with that?”

“Amber, we have lost nearly an entire day of travel because you were unconscious! We have no room for error now, we need to head straight to Florida without any breaks!”

Amber groaned and mumbled, “we get to rest on the bus at least, right?”

Emily looked up pensively and answered, “Actually, we’ve got a couple of hours before the bus arrives. And the guy at the front gave us keys for a room after I arrived with you. Also I’m pretty sure the food is free”, Emily shot Amber another look, “Not that you really deserve it”.

“You’re not gonna forgive me for this so easily, huh?”

“If we make it to Florida by the solstice, then maybe”.

Amber sighed and responded, “Come on Emily, no need to be a wet rag. Where’s the room?”

Amber looked around until she saw the key in Emily’s hand. She reached for it, but Amber held it out of her reach. “First of all, what the Tartarus did you just call me?”

“A wet rag? Oh. uh, it means… cool.”

“...You really suck at lying, you know that?”

Emily began running to the elevator down the hall and said, “first one there gets to lock the other one out!”

“Bogus! You're getting a head start!”

“Hey, you want me to be more exciting, don’t you?”

Amber grinned and sprinted for the staircase, speeding along each floor until-

“Gods dammit, I don’t even know what room we’re at!”

Amber ran to the second floor and looked in the hallway. Lo and behold, there she was. Emily was at the end of the hallway, about to put the key into the door. Amber shrieked and sprinted across the hall, this time using her shoes to propel herself into Emily as the door flew open. The two of them fell into the room and- hang on.

Amber looked below her. It was Emily and- some other person? The two of them immediately stood up as they looked down at the person they had just piled on top of. It was a little guy, in the resort uniform and sweating like no one’s business. She and Emily looked at each other, and then back at the bellhop. They stood in place and slowly walked out the door, running down the hall. Emily shrugged and flopped on top of the bed, but Amber became suspicious. Her mind began running a mile a minute; were they wiring their room? No, maybe they were just cleaning up. Cleaning up what, though? They looked way too nervous to just be cleaning. 

“Emily, that guy was up to something”

“Yeah, I know.”

“... Wait, what?”

“That guy was acting suspicious as hell, but we can deal with it later if it comes up.”

“Why not now?”

“Amber, I just watched someone save you from a coma. All I want now is to just make it here until the bus arrives and we can leave. If we can ignore the shit here, I say we ignore it.”

“And if we can’t?”

Emily sat up with a cold look on her face, and tapped her hair clip. “We’ll be ready for them.”

Amber nodded and looked out the door. The hallway was still clear, and she was realizing just how hungry she was. She looked over at Emily and asked, “Hey, you wanna come get some food with me?”

Emily didn’t answer. She simply continued to look at the ceiling from the bed. “Alright, I’ll bring you back something.”

Amber walked back down the stairs to the dining section of the lobby. She still couldn’t get that bellhop out of her head though. He was acting so weird, and for no obvious reason. She thought over any reasons she could come up with for his behavior as she filled a plate with cold bacon, fresh strawberries, and some baguette slices, but couldn’t come up with anything plausible enough for her to believe herself, let alone Emily. She sat at a table and began to eat absentmindedly, but something felt off. She looked over at the front desk, and just caught one of the clerks looking at her before turning away. It wasn’t subtle in the slightest. It could’ve been because she was the only one there, but- wait, why was she the only one there? 

Amber looked around a little more. All empty, except for her and the front desk. She would have expected at least someone else walking around or at the door, but it was completely silent. Now that she noticed it, it felt a bit unnerving. She walked over to the front desk and asked in a polite voice, “Do you happen to know where the bathroom is?”

The woman at the desk smiled, a bit too widely, and answered, “Walk down that hallway and last door on the right. It has a large sign on the door, you can’t miss it!” 

Amber thanked the woman and walked down the hall and to the bathroom door. She walked past it and through a large set of black double doors that looked like they led outside. The moment she opened it though, she immediately began to gag. The smell alone told her that she was by the trash bins, and looking over proved it. She began to look around for anything suspicious, and started with opening the trash bins. With all her will power, she lifted the top of the first one and looked inside, shooing away the oncoming swarm of flies. It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for. In everal garbage bags, she saw golden statues. She looked closer, and they looked to be golden statues of  _ people _ . They were all frozen in various states of shock, fear and anger. Amber slowly closed the bin; she had all the proof she needed. 

As she raced through the hall and past the front desk, the lady asked in an eerily sweet voice, “I hope you found your bathroom trip satisfactory”. 

Amber had a proper look at the clerk’s face; she was sweating to- no, not sweating. It looked more like some kind of luster when she looked closer. Her smile revealed several gold teeth, and she noticed a single golden iris. What was going on here? Did she know what she did? Amber gave the clerk a weak smile and a thumbs up. The clerk smiled even wider, revealing even more gold teeth. Amber bolted for the stairs. 

When she finally reached the door, Amber ripped it open and opened her mouth to tell Emily, only to stand there in shock when she saw the bellhop tied to a chair with Emily lying on the bed. 

“You told me we weren’t getting involved”.

“Yeah, until they provoked us that is.”

Amber glanced at the bellhop, frozen in fear. “And you did this on your own?”

“Wow, no respect whatsoever”, Emily responded nonchalantly. 

Amber frowned and asked, “So what are we gonna do with him?”

Emily smiled and answered, “Actually, I think this is where you come in. What's that special power of yours, to make people tell you stuff?”

“Minor charmspeaking, basically.”

“Exactly, I was hoping you could get some answers out of our friend over here?”

Amber nodded and walked over to the bellhop, looking at him a little closer. That shine they gave off was looking less and less like sweat every passing moment. Amber looked them in the eyes, and said, “What was with the garbage bins full of statues out back?”

Emily looked over at her with an expression that said she had several questions, but the bellhop grunted before letting something slip: “They’re there to be melted down!”

What? Melted down? “Then why do they look like people?”

“Because they were, once.”

Merde. “What did you do to them?”

“We… no, I won’t say anymore! They already know that I’ve been captured by now, we’re all doomed!”

Emily jumped off the bed and walked over to the door, pressing her ear against it to listen. Her face grew pale with worry in seconds. That definitely wasn’t a good sign. Amber looked to the bellhop and said, “Alright, I’m giving you one o two options here. I’m assuming that those people out there aren’t going to be very happy if they find you without your ‘hostages’. You can either be useful to us and come along nicely, or we leave you to whatever they’re going to do to you. Answer quickly, because it looks like we’re on a schedule here.”

Emily ran to the window and looked up. “The roof is right above us, we can climb if we’re fast enough!”

Amber nodded and looked to the bellhop. “Last chance, bud. You coming or staying?”

The bellhop nodded and Amber hoisted them over her shoulder. “Let’s agitate the gravel, mademoiselle”. 

Emily smiled and started climbing out the window. The moment she did though, someone started banging against the door. The voice of the clerk yelled, “Erebus, I know you’re in there! What’s taking so long? Come out with the girls, now!”

Amber let out a string of french curses as she looked out the window. It overlooked the setting sun in the distance and parking lot, and it looked like it would be a long way to fall…

BANG BANG BANG! “Erebus!”

Amber snapped out of it and began to hand the tied up Erebus over to Emily, who was already on the roof. Just as she got them up on the roof, she heard a key in a lock over at the door. No, no no, she wasn’t even up yet! Amber took a deep breath and walked out the window, reaching to take Emily’s hand on the rooftop. “C’mon, c’mon, we don’t have all day!”, Emily cried. 

Amber grabbed Emily’s hand and began to go out the window, but was thrown out of it by the door crashing open. She began to reach for the roof ledge and pull herself up, but the clerk had already seen her. A face full of malice, the clerk began to run for the window. Amber pushed herself up with a great heave, and reached the roof! The clerk wasn’t lucky enough to stop herself through, as the three of them looked over the side and saw her body, shown to be made entirely of gold, shattered into pieces on the pavement below. Amber shuddered. That could’ve been her down there. Well, minus the million gold pieces thing of course. 

She looked back over at Emily, who had her backpack in her hand. Amber smiled, and took it. However, as it is with all half-bloods, it wasn’t that simple. The three of them were blown further onto the roof by a hand made entirely out of gold. When Amber looked closer though, she saw that it was made out of the golden statues in the garbage bins. Amber groaned. Of course the statues were sentient. Why wouldn’t they be? The trio scrambled further onto the roof to get away from the gold hand, but it seemed that it couldn’t get on the roof. Amber thanked whatever god decided to throw them a bone, and looked to Emily. “This isn’t so bad. How long until the bus gets here?”

Emily grimaced at that question. Amber’s face fell as she told her, “two hours.”

Erebus began stuttering, “two- two hours? That- that thing could find- it could find a way up here- I don’t think we can wait around two hours!”

Amber shot them a warning glance, and looked at Emily. “So what exactly can we do in the meantime?”

“I think in the meantime,  _ someone _ should get to explaining what exactly is going on”.

The girls looked over at Erebus. They sighed and responded, “I don’t know much, they weren’t exactly very intent on telling me what was going on. All I know is that we take people who come here somewhere, and when they come out they’re gold statues.”

Amber nodded, and Emily asked, “So why exactly are you here? You don’t seem much like the others here”.

Erebus shook their head and explained, “I was nearly one of those statues, but I told them I could be useful in bringing people to them. You two were my first time doing it”.

Amber chuckled a bit. “You certainly got a crummy first mission, two demigods who figured you out immediately!”

Erebus looked down a bit, but everyone jumped as they heard the gold thing begin to drag across the ground. Emily’s face suddenly turned dark and interrogated, “Do you know where this room is?”

Erebus nodded and Emily ordered, “we’re going back. Amber, you stay up here.”

Amber opened her mouth to protest, but Emily immediately shut her down by pointing out, “You’re still recovering from hitting a wooden pole head-on. You stay here and regain your energy. We'll deal with this.”

Emily pulled out her hair clip, and it grew into a spear in her hands. The two of them climbed back down into the building, and Amber sat there fuming. She eventually told herself, “I mean, she's right. I should get some sleep. But only a half hour!”

Amber laid her head on the roof tiles and immediately clocked out. 

She was back in the dark cave again. She began walking towards the light at the end, and this time saw it in clearer view. The man in the hawaiian shirt was a large man, almost bigger than Amber, with a brown goatee and a malicious gleam in his eyes. He was surrounded by several satyrs, each covered in splotchy gold patches. The man spoke in a gruff voice, “Now, we’ve nearly got the timing as well. A little more gold, and we should have enough for the voyage.”

He then looked into a shadowy corner of the room, where there was a collection of other satyrs, these ones completely encased in gold. Amber looked as well, and realized that she was looking at the cloven council! They were all in poses of fear, their faces contorted in pure terror and agony. The man grinned, and announced, “We will have that lyre by the end of the solstice, or my name isn’t Minos!”

Amber snapped out of her sleep, and looked at the stars above her. She could still hear the screeching of the gold creature, now on the other side of the building. But she wasn’t concerned about that. She knew that she needed to tell Emily her dream as soon as possible. For all she knew, her life could hang on it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY UPDATED!! Please enjoy the new chapter as I get to work on the next.


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